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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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SUMMER SEMESTER 2005
EDUC 2
50-3
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE
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WESTERN WORLD
(D01.00)
Kieran Egan
Office: EDB 8668
Phone: 291-4671
email: egansfu.ca
TUESDAY 13:00-14:50 in EDB 7500B
PREREQUISITE
None.
DESCRIPTION
To introduce the variety of ideas people have held about education in the Western world, and the practices that
these ideas have been used to justify. We will look at what has been done to children in the name of
"education" in oral cultures long ago, to the time of Plato in ancient Greece, and up to the present day in North
America. Our main focus will be on how our current conception of education has been built over the centuries
out of sometimes conflicting ideas, and the kinds of problems for current practice that this strange history has
generated. We will also be looking at the forms of educational practice that have been common in different
times and places.
OBJECTIVES
Education in the Western world has had two quite distinct phases. In the first education was largely about how
to prepare males to run society; in the second, beginning roughly during the nineteenth century and continuing
today, education is largely about preparing everyone to become democratic citizens who will be useful to the
state and be able to live fulfilling lives. Our objective for the course is to understand how these ideas have
grown and changed, and see the challenges to their achievement. To aid this understanding, we will study:
Education in oral cultures: making the harmonious person;
Education in Plato's view: how to perceive the truth about reality;
Medieval education: the mirror of moral perfection;
Renaissance and Enlightenment: bourgeois ideals;
Revolution and Romanticism: Education in Rousseau's view;
The scientific revolution: evolution, biology, and recapitulation;
Education for all: psychology and method;
http://www.educ.sfu.ca/ugradprogs/Outlines/Educ250egan.html
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EDUC Out1in ?
3/17/05 3:01 PM
The resulting chaos in modem corActs about education.
READINGS Some articles and readings will be made available in class.
REQUIRED TEXT
Reed, Ronald F., & Johnson, Tony W. (Eds.) (2000). Philosophical documents in education (2nd Edition).
New York: Longman.
ISBN: 0801333164
ASSIGNMENTS
Presentation on one of the readings [20%]
Small paper
(6
pp.
Max.)
[
3
5%]
Final paper: (10 pp. Mm.)
[45%]
Attendance [Compulsory.]
Return to Education's Undergraduate 2005-2 Course Outlines Main Page.
http://www.educ.sfu.calugradprogs/OutlineslEduc250egan.html ?
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